KP 1/72 Hawker Tempest F.6
By Jacob Russell
KP's new Hawker Tempest F.6 comes in a sturdy, end-opening box with evocative artwork of a trio of Tempest F.6s flying high over Europe. It consists of 84 plastic parts on 4 sprues, one of which is clear. The surface detail on the wings and fuselage consists of recessed panel lines and rivets where appropriate and this detail is great. Although the kit lacks the anti-shimmy rear wheel of the late Typhoon/Early Tempest one can build either the radial engine Tempest Mk.II or the Napier Sabre powered F.6 from the parts included in the kit.
The molding quality is top notch. The parts are free of flash and sink marks and the panel lines are crisp and appropriately deep. The sprue attachment parts are well located so the parts will be easy to remove from the sprues. The cockpit is very nice. Some of the detail is a little over scale, but given the narrow cockpit opening plus the fact that the cockpit was mostly black most of the detail will be invisible in the first place. The wheel wells and landing gear are very good but the 4 spoke Late wheels don't really resemble those of the real thing. Optional parts include drop tanks, bombs or rail-mounted rockets.
The clear parts are well done. They include the windscreen, sliding canopy and under wing landing lights.
KP's decals are nice. The colors are crisp and bright and all text is legible. The single sheet is just slightly out of register upon close examination so most of the decals are still usable The sheet includes 2 sets of national insignia, individual aircraft codes and a seat harness. There are 3 Tempest F.6 options on the sheet. All 3 are in RAF Ocean Grey/Dark Green/Medium Sea Grey camouflage:
Hawker Tempest F.6, NX247, "H", No. 39 Squadron RAF, Khartoum Airbase, Sudan, 1949. The aircraft code, spinner and fuselage band are Sky.
Hawker Tempest F.6, NX126, "GN-A", No. 249 Squadron RAF, Habbaniya Airbase, Iraq 1949. The aircraft codes are red outlined in white, the spinner is 50/50 red/white and the fuselage band is Sky.
Hawker Tempest F.6, NX204, "JV-X", No. 39 Squadron RAF, Khartoum Airbase, Sudan, 1949. The aircraft codes are white, the spinner is yellow and the fuselage band is Sky.
The instructions are up to KP's usual high standards. The instructions include a parts map, a well illustrated and logical build sequence., There are also full color profiles of all 3 decal options on the bottom of the box.
Conclusion
This is a great kit of an important aircraft. It is accurate and well detailed and the build should be straightforward. The 3 decal options are also very cool. It will look great right out of the box and there are some aftermarket sets available from Brengun and others, if you want to increase the detail level. I recommend this kit and I would like to thank KP for the review sample.
References
Hawker Tempest, Mk.I,V,II, VI TT Mks.5, 6, by Michal Ovčάčίk and Karel Susa, 4 + Publications, 2000